It’s often said that once you’ve been to one social media conference, you’ve "seen them all."

Last week, Mark Sinclair attended Alterian's Engaging Times summit at the Park Plaza Victoria in London. The summit was primarily focussed on customer and client engagement – the key elements to marketing campaigns with a distinctly social feel to them.

Key note speakers at the conference included leaders from brands such as Acxiom, STA Travel, Virgin Galectic, Enguage and marketing experts like Stan Rapp who focussed on bringing in the latets business development advice to attendees.

At the conference, key note presenters spoke of the mass of companies which are still sticking with traditional marketing methods and not seeing results. Whatever you choose to call it – social media, online networking, new media – this fast reaching and engaging way to reach customers is quickly becoming the start of a “generational change” in marketing.

One of the key topics of the summit has been the state of the marketing industry today – and the huge damage which companies who refuse to engage, are going to face in the future. As Mike Talbot explains, customers now “choose what they listen to, they choose what they read, they choose what they watch...they are going to trust peer generated content more than they will trust corporate generated content.”

Clearly, it’s no longer acceptable to market at people – you must engage to truly see your business grow and prosper.